The Box
by phoenixfyre13
Summary: Everything Remus Lupin had ever cherished could fit into a box. Sad RLNT. First timer, so praise and concrit welcome! T for safety.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of these characters, as much as I would like to, as they already belong to JK Rowling. The backstory is the creation of my own active imagination, although I did my best not to interfere with any canon. Please feel free to alert me if I have.

**The Box**

All his life, everything Remus Lupin had ever cherished could fit into a box.

When he was very young, even before the terrors of full moons gripped his childhood and he became a pariah amongst his peers, Remus Lupin had been a boy of few possessions and even fewer treasures. While his boyhood friends would goggle at the latest broomstick model in the store window, Lupin's parents would inevitably find their son poring over the newest book on charms in the back corner of Flourish and Blotts, trying to absorb as much as he could before he has to reluctantly place the book back on the shelf. Remus knew his parents felt guilty that they could not provide their only child with everything he desired, even though he never complained about the simplicity of his childhood. Except for the whole werewolf thing, of course.

When young Remus did receive gifts, he immediately placed them in the toy box at the foot of his bed. His father had built the box by hand, lovingly carving intricate scenes of nymphads and unicorns in a magical woodland scene. Remus always looked back and wondered if that wasn't the first time he had fallen for a nymph. Inside that box was a plethora of items meticulously and thoughtfully collected over his first eleven years. Stones that caught his eye as he sat and played by the stream running near his home; objects he has charmed to spin, flash, fly, and perform other various entertainments for himself and his very few friends; the cloak his mother had given him on his tenth birthday. But by far, the items that took up the most room in his box were his books.

Remus had always had a passion for reading, whether it was the Muggle authors like Homer, Shakespeare and Wordsworth or the wizarding guidebooks for enchantments, charms, or magical creatures. For him there was nothing more magical than running his hand down the cracked leather spine of whatever adventure or knowledge he was about to delve into and feeling the thrill of anticipation over the journey on which he was about to endeavor. Even after that darkest night lit only by a full moon and the screams that echoed the loss of childhood, after Lupin's youth was cut short and he was forced to deal with pain and horror no person – much less a child – should be forced to deal with, he always found solace in that box, in those books. For just a moment, he could forget.

When Remus went to Hogwarts, he had to leave his toy box – and his abbreviated youth – behind him. The books, however, continued on their journey with him, now locked in a black, worn steamer trunk handed down by his father. How Remus had loved that trunk! Even when despicable Lucius Malfoy had sneered at it on that first trip on the Hogwarts Express, proclaiming it to be "just as shoddy as its owner", Lupin ignored the stinging comment as he shuffled down the aisle searching for a compartment where he could simply disappear into a corner with one of his beloved books. A dark-haired boy with glasses appeared in the aisle, scowled at Malfoy and told him to bugger off, then smiled kindly at Remus and offered him a seat in their compartment. In a way, Remus knew that beaten black trunk had somehow given him the best gift he had ever received – the friendship of James Potter and Sirius Black.

Years later, a box once again proved to hold a great treasure. This box was much smaller than the others he had possessed over the years. As a man of few possessions and no one place to call home, he had gotten used to traveling light, with all his things packed in a couple of bags or a trunk. This new small box was heavy in his pocket, heavier than all the things he had carried over his lifetime. Because the promise that lay within this box, covered in soft black velvet and tucked into his robe pocket, was more frightening and hopeful than anything he had ever experienced. This box contained the greatest gift of all – the hope of a future and joy and light in one of the darkest times of the wizarding world's history. And as Remus clung to a certain pink-haired witch, her happy laughter ringing in his ears and her tears falling on his shoulder, he could swear that the light from the small diamond on her left hand would be enough to defeat the Dark Lord himself.

Today, it is raining. As the thunder rolls around the valley, Remus watches as one final box – containing all his hopes, dreams, and happiness – is lowered into the ground. His chest feels empty, and he knows it is because this box contains his heart. Memories of Nymphadora threaten to engulf him as he sinks to the ground next to her grave. Her bravery in battle, the fact that she died defending the Chosen One, means very little to him next to the pain of grief that is searing through his brain. All the tears have left him; he knows he has cried enough for everyone present in the last two days since their victory over Voldemort and that painful realization that he would never get to see Dora walk down the aisle towards him, beaming and trying not to trip on the most important walk of her life. He does not know what to do now; it seems that the most fitting thing would be for someone to point their wand at his chest and allow him to be laid next to his Dora.

With a trembling hand, Remus gently reaches out and places her favorite Muggle book on her coffin, running his hand one last time tenderly down the spine, as if by touching that book he is caressing her face one last time. Those around him avert their eyes, feeling as if they had intruded upon a final moment of intimacy between the two lovers. Dora had always found so many similarities within the pages of _Jane Eyre_ to her relationship with Remus. "You see," she would say, glaring up at him accusingly, "not every couple is perfect on the outside. It's what's in the heart that makes for a happy ending."

All his life, everything Remus Lupin had ever cherished could fit into a box.

**The End**

**Author's Note: **Well, I hope it didn't suck too badly for a first stab! I had this floating around in my head for a week, and I had to get it out. I took some liberties by placing Malfoy in the same Hogwarts era as the Marauders, but I thought that it made sense. Please feel free to review!


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